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The Black Dahlia murder chats everything you need to know about their
new record!

Last week, I was able to snag a few minutes with Brian Eschbach lead guitarist of The Black Dahlia Murder and it was a great chat. With their newest album coming out Friday, Absymal, and a new North American tour for this fall, they have a ton going on and I’m glad we got the opportunity to talk about it all. Brian broke down the writing process for me as well as some of the biggest challenges as well as brighter moments in their career. Read on and hope you catch these talented men on their upcoming tour with Goatwhore!

Obviously you do have a lot coming up with Absymal coming out and you guys are always on the road. You have the tour coming up, but what are the three things you must have while on tour to survive?

At any given moment of consciousness, I need my phone, wallet and sunglasses? Yeah.

And we have interviewed the band before, with Trevor, on your last major tour. He talked at the time about how you guys were working on the new record. Now it comes out September 18th, maybe how long was that record in the making?

Absymal? In the making, really most of it was written between I want to say December and March.

You and Trevor have been doing this band since 2001. Do you think there was something that changed in the process for this record or do you think you’ve gotten into a steady rhythm when it comes to writing?

I don’t know really so much on that level. It’s pretty natural. Same sort of thing. Alright it’s time to write. Sit down and play guitar till you hear something that sounds cool. Then from there, be alright what kind of riffs sound cool with this riff and the songs kind of go from there for me.

Perfect, then I know you have new members that have come in and out of the band. When you started this band with Trevor, were there maybe goals you wanted to meet with your music.

Right, I mean a goal since we set out or just for this record?

No for you. Like maybe something you wanted to do with this record, yes.

Sure, really I try not to have anything set in stone. Maybe ever once in a while, like a rhythmic idea like oh I have to write a song that incorporates something like that. But really, it’s more about what kind of happens naturally in the playing of music for me. I mean I know Trevor sometimes he’ll have a topic that he knows he wants to do to for a year in advance he’s thought about that. Then he’ll hear music at some point and he’ll be like that’s the music for the song.

Then you’ve already announced your US run for a little whiel from now. Do you think with those sets, Absymal will have a strong presence? Do you think you’re only going to do like one or two songs? Maybe road-test, kind of what’s your game plan?

Yes, we have a US run with Goatwhore before the end of the year. We’re going to focus pretty much on the old, but we’ll probably have a good handful of songs from the new one. We try not to like overwhelm an audience with too much new material. Sometimes they’ve got to hear the record a little bit.

Then considering you do have six albums released so how do you pick your set list? Do you still try to play one or two from each record?

Yeah, we definitely try to have as much as we can from our records, but sometime es there’s records obviously that have more songs that have more time allotted to them. But we try to be conscious of that. Doing what people who are coming to shows want to hear while also playing stuff that we want to play. But it’s always a balance that we try to figure out.

Like I keep saying, you’ve had a lot of years in this band. I’m sure there are highs and lows. Maybe the biggest challenge and maybe the thing you’re most proud of from the past few years?

Oh, biggest challenge. Wow.

Yeah that’s a weird one to think about.

I guess the biggest challenge is just really learning what we want as musicians. What we want out of the show. What we expect in each other, in our bandmates. We’re basically roomies. That was the biggest challenge and it’s something that’s always going on. You always got to evolve. Proudest moment?

You’ve been doing it for so long you know what I mean. You’ve been touring constantly. Probably seen a lot of bands come and go, that kind of thing.

I guess still one of the proudest moments for everyone was just getting signed. Being on Metal Blade records. They were like hey we like what you’re doing and I think other people like it too. Then I guess also for being able to realize that there was an audience for what we were doing.

Perfect and then you have so much coming up. The record is out just within a week and a half. You have the tour announced. What’s going to be coming up maybe like early 2016 for The Black Dahlia Murder? Do you think you’re going to be touring more here, maybe overseas? Kind of what’s coming up for the band?

Well we have our North American tour for this year but next year, early on, I know we’re trying to go over to do some shows in Europe. Try to play a good chunk of stuff from the new album as well as classics. Quote on quote. Then, after that I mean it’s still all kind of being like organized at this point.